How to Use Twitter on the Nexus 7 Tablet

Twitter is a social networking site that you can use on your Nexus 7 tablet. On Twitter, you write short spurts of text that express your thoughts or observations, or you share links. Or you can use Twitter to follow the thoughts and twitterings, or tweets, of other people.

A message posted on Twitter is a tweet.

A tweet can be no more than 140 characters long. That number includes spaces and punctuation.

You can post messages on Twitter and follow others who post messages. It’s a good way to get updates and information quickly, not only from individuals but also from news outlets and other organizations.

How to set up Twitter

The best way to use Twitter on the Nexus 7 is to already have a Twitter account. Start by going to Twitter on a computer and following the directions there for creating a new account.

After you’ve established a Twitter account, obtain the Twitter app for your Nexus 7. The app can be obtained from the Google Play Store. Get the Twitter app from Twitter, Inc. (The Google Play Store may show lots of Twitter apps, or clients.)

When you start the Twitter app for the first time, touch the Sign In button. Type your Twitter username or e-mail address and then type your Twitter password. After that, you can use Twitter without having to log in again — until you turn off the tablet or exit the Twitter app.

How to tweet from the Nexus 7 tablet

The Twitter app provides an excellent interface to the many wonderful and interesting things that Twitter does. Of course, the two most basic tasks are reading and writing tweets.

To read tweets, choose the Home category. Recent tweets are displayed in a list, with the most recent information at the top. Scroll the list by swiping it with your finger.

To tweet, touch the new-tweet icon. Use the New Tweet screen to compose your tweet.

Touch the Tweet button to share your thoughts with the twitterverse.

You have only 140 characters for creating your tweet. That includes spaces.

The character counter in the Twitter app lets you know how close you are to reaching the 140-character limit.

Twitter itself doesn’t display pictures other than your account picture. When you send a picture to Twitter, you use an image-hosting service and then share the link, or URL, to the image. All this complexity is handled by the Twitter app.

The Twitter app appears on various Share menus in other apps on your Nexus 7. You use these Share menus to send to Twitter whatever you’re looking at.